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Abstract
The topics discussed and developed in this dissertation aim to offer a conceptual model describing how individual attributes and media behaviors affect perception of public support for ones own position regarding sociopolitical issues. The model proposes that individual differences in religiosity and media skepticism directly influence perceptions of public opinion on sociopolitical issues, resulting in false consensus, and that, at the same time, use of alternative media sources mediates the influence of individual differences on false consensus. This model was tested using samples drawn from Amazons Mechanical Turk (MTurk) as well as structural equation modeling (SEM). Our findings demonstrate that religiosity, media skepticism, religious media use, and social media use all influence overestimation of public support for ones own attitudes, albeit on different issues. The differences between relationship-oriented and content-oriented social media were also found in our model. We also found that religious media use fully mediates the effect of religiosity on false consensus about marijuana use and affirmative action. Another contribution of this dissertation is the development of refined measures of media use to better capture various dimensions of this popular concept. The implications of this dissertation and suggestions for future research are discussed.